May 20th, 2011 my Dad sadly past away. He had bravely battled cancer for 5 years. Dad was the rock of our family and he helped me out tremendously in my life and when starting my career as a PT. He was a succesful business man so I was always asking for his advice when it came to business. Why is this relevant to your body transformation. Well his death caused me to totally re-evaluate the way I lived my life.

Was I the best person I could be?

?Was I being honest to myself and others?

What do I want to achieve in life?

Was I being the best Fitness coach I could be?

Was I a role model for my clients?

I’ve never been big on worrying about what has happened. I cant alter what has been and gone so why worry about it? I always look to the future and try to shape that. Would Dad want me to sit around feeling sorry for myself while I let my business and full time degree I was doing at the time of his death suffer? No of course not. He would want me to ‘crack on’ with my life and be successful. Dad’s death was the driving force behind me re-evaluating how I lived my life and out of this negative event if there was a positive that has come out of it, it is that Dad’s no BS approach to life has made me a better fitness coach and person (A lot of friends and clients may disagree!!!).

I believe every now and then we need a bit of a reality check (such as I got when Dad died) and a re-evaluation of the way we live our lives. Is it suited to achieve results? Are you being honest with your peers and your coach? Are you making fitness a priority in your life? I think sometimes it is easy to just keep plodding along in our comfort zone and magically expecting things to happen.

I personally think people try to convince themselves that everything is ok when in fact it is far from ok.

Throughout my 7 years as a fitness coach you meet different kinds of characters. Thats why I love my job because nobody is the same and every programme and session I write is different from the next. For the purpose of this blog I am going to categorise 4 of the most common clients I see.

PERSON #1) THEY LISTEN, THEY LEARN BUT CANT COMMIT FOR THE LONG-TERM

This kind of person I find it increasingly frustrating to coach. They are open to try new things and are open to learning about their body however they struggle for one reason or another to commit to a training/nutritional plan and therefore lack the consistency that every long-term exercise plan needs to see results. This type of person tends to put others before them and doesn’t find time for themselves. They are honest and realistic about the fact they haven’t been doing enough and realise they need to change and find more time for themselves. They are often too nice for their own good and cant seem to break away from helping others before sorting themselves out.

PERSON #2) ALL TALK NO ACTION

They tell you what they want you to hear and convince themselves and try to convince me and others that they are doing enough to see results.They will tell you all the good things they have been doing but forget to tell you all the bad things they have been doing. This is a bit like a poker player. They tell you how much they have won but never tell you how much they have lost. These types of people are often quick to blame external influences rather than looking internally at themselves.

PERSON #3) ALL ACTION

These people just crack on with what is asked of them and set in their programme. They love fitness and nutrition and find time for themselves, their work and their family and tend to be on the whole better organised. You sometimes have to hold this type of person back as they have beliefs that more is better etc….

PERSON #4) I MUST SEE RESULTS IMMEDIATELY!!!!

These type of people are set up for a big fall. They most likely have tried every FAD diet going so metabolically their body is all over the place. This makes seeing results immediately even harder and their body must re-adjust and recover from all the stress that has been placed on it previously. When they don’t see results immediately they become de-motivated and tend to not stick to the plan or try extreme unhealthy measures which puts them back to where they have started. Its like a vicious circle.I recently had a client who lost 5Ibs in their first week but lost nothing in their 2nd week and as a result became de-motivated! However they had lost 5Ib in 14 days!!!!!

So which person do you think you are? Be honest and spend just 5-10 minutes listing 3 things that you want to start doing differently in your lifestyle. Start to put them in to action from this week and see how you go.

In conclusion I think sometimes its easy to hide behind ‘the curtain’ and pretend our lifestyle is ok when in fact if we put our hands up and admit that we need to make changes that will bring about better results. We occasionally need to ‘man up’ and I can say first hand that doing just that has made me a better person and coach. I don’t kid myself anymore or expect miracles when I miss a training session or have one too many cheat meals!

To finish on just ask yourself this question:

‘Am I doing everything required to look, feel and perform the way I want to in life?’

https://paulcookpt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/6-week-picture.jpg959538Paul Cookhttp://paulcookpt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/PCPT-LOGO1-300x248.jpgPaul Cook2014-08-26 13:18:132017-12-14 14:55:51Are we being honest and realistic when it comes to fat loss?